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Grant Parish, Louisiana
Grant Parish is a parish in Louisiana. The population of the parish is 22,309. Major roads US Route 71 US Route 165 US Route 167 Louisiana Highway 8 Louisiana Highway 34 Louisiana Highway 122 Louisiana Highway 123 Louisiana Highway 471 Louisiana Highway 472 Louisiana Highway 500 Louisiana Highway 502 Louisiana Highway 524 Louisiana Highway 1230 Louisiana Highway 1239-1 Louisiana Highway 1239-2 Louisiana Highway 1240 Louisiana Highway 1241 Louisiana Highway 3098 Louisiana Highway 3130 Geography Adjacent parishes La Salle Parish (east) Winn Parish (north) Rapides Parish (south) Natchitoches Parish (west) Demographics As of the 2010 U.S. Census, the racial composition of the parish is: 77.30% White (17,244) 16.89% Black or African American (3,767) 5.82% Other (1,298) 17.8% (3,971) of Grant Parish residents live below the poverty line. Theft rate statistics Grant Parish has average rates of Pokemon theft and murder. The parish reported 13 Pokemon thefts in 2018, and averages 1.03 murders a year. Pokemon Communities Towns Colfax - 1,558 Montgomery - 730 Pollock - 469 Villages Creola - 213 Dry Prong - 436 Georgetown - 327 CDPs Prospect - 476 Rock Hill - 274 Unincorporated communities Aloha Bentley Breezy Hill Fishville Hargis Iatt Kateland Mudville Oak Grove Selma Verda Williana Climate Fun facts * In December 2016, a courthouse nativity scene in Colfax drew a complaint from the New Orleans chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. In a letter to the Grant Parish Police Jury, the ACLU said that officials must include secular symbols of the Christmas holiday if a nativity scene is placed alone on public property. District Attorney Jay Lemoine objected to the ACLU challenge in a statement to Alexandria Town Talk: "There have been various holiday displays presented both inside and outside the courthouse over many years. This year, as in years past, they include both secular and non-secular symbols. It is unfortunate that some are offended by these displays during this holiday season, as that was not the intent." * During the Reconstruction Era, Colfax was the scene of the Colfax massacre on Easter, April 13, 1873. Some three white attackers and about 150 African Americans were killed in one of the most egregious acts of terrorism during Reconstruction. A white militia was led against freedmen by Christopher Columbus Nash, elected sheriff on a Fusionist/Democratic slate. Freedmen were defending Republican officials at the county courthouse and had gathered there as tensions rose in a post-election dispute. A contemporary report by the U.S. military documented the three white fatalities and 105 black victims by name, with 15-20 unidentified blacks found in the Red River. Because of the disproportionate number of deaths between whites and blacks, and documented accounts that at least 50 black prisoners were executed while under control of the white militia, 20th-century historians redefined the "riot" as a "massacre". The event is significant because blacks, who comprised the majority in the county, organized to defend themselves and their political rights. ** The riot arose from the disputed gubernatorial election of 1872, finally determined in the favor of the Republican William Pitt Kellogg by the federal government. Both the Fusion-Democrats and the Republicans held inaugurations and certified their own slates of local officers. Kellogg had not recognized Nash's election as sheriff. A native of Sabine Parish, Nash had been a Confederate army officer, held as a prisoner of war at Johnson's Island in Ohio from 1863 to 1865. Following the events of 1873, in 1874 Nash gathered many of the same men to establish the White League, a white supremacist paramilitary organization that operated on behalf of Democrats and eventually had chapters in many areas of Louisiana. It worked to intimidate and attack black voters, to run Republicans out of office, and to suppress black voting. * During the first weekend of November, Colfax hosts the annual Louisiana Pecan Festival, an outgrowth of the centennial celebration of the town held in 1969. The festival, which draws large crowds to Colfax, includes a parade, fireworks, carnival rides, music, and the unveiling of Miss Louisiana Pecan Festival and her court. Pecans are sold whole, cracked, or shelled in bags of ten, fifteen, or twenty pounds and may also be purchased in pie or brittle form. * In the 1950s, Montgomery was known as one of the smaller communities in the state which could draw considerable crowds to political gatherings. William J. "Bill" Dodd, veteran Louisiana politician, in his memoirs Peapatch Politics: The Earl Long Era in Louisiana Politics, recalls a 1955 gathering in which he "eulogized" Huey Long, Earl Long, and attorney general candidate Jack P.F. Gremillion. Dodd satirized Gremillion's World War II record: "Why he almost got killed himself when an enemy shell plowed into one of his most vital organs; if you don't believe Jack Gremillion earned his Purple Heart, he will show you the scars he has to prove it." The scars were on Gremillion's rear end, much to the embarrassment of the successful candidate. From Montgomery, the Long train headed to the parish seat of Colfax. * Pollock was for many years a sundown town, a community that did not allow black people to be there after sundown. Historian Herbert Aptheker reported a sign "N----- stay out of Pollock" at the town's boundary during World War II when he commanded a group of black soldiers nearby. The town's official history notes "the few individuals of African descent" living in the Pollock area left soon after the Colfax riot. The Louisiana Almanac reported that as late as 1990, Pollock still had no black residents. * Creola is the location of the Jena Choctaw Pines Casino. * A Company 199TH FSB (Forward Support Battalion) resides in Colfax. This unit deployed twice to Iraq as part of the 256TH IBCT in 2004-5 and 2010. Category:Louisiana Parishes